Where to get started?
by Remi · in General Discussion · 07/28/2006 (1:46 pm) · 2 replies
Brief history of me: I did first year game art and animation, which was a total joke and waste of money, biggest mistake of my life. Of Course I still want to make games, I ended up going to school for something totally different and will be starting my new life. This was 3 years ago. I am trying to learn C++ but I am an artist, 2d and 3d artist.
I still have a passion for making games. I am wanting to create some indie games using the Torque Engine. I just have a few questions that I cant seem to find answers to anywhere else.
Extremely General idea of the game I would like to make:
The game I want to make will take place in an underwater world in First and 3rd person view, adventure style looking for objects.
................
I've been hunting around for products to purchase to start developing my game. I need your opinions and suggestions to help me ease into this. I am looking for something affordable. (please dont mention blender)
My original Plan was to use:
Torque Engine, Truespace7 with gamePak
Is "The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque" a good book for me to get started on making my game? (what does it exactly teach?) I developed some simple C++ programs but im extremely novice.
Is Truespace7 with the gamePak WORTH my money? I do want to avoid wasting money and time. Does Truespace bring models with animations into Torque quite easily headache free?
..................
What Products should I invest my precious time and money into? I want to avoid any liscencing problems when and IF I sell my game.
From your experience what was the best products that helped you develope your game with the least headaches and bumps in the road?
Help point me to the right directions Thank you for your time.
I still have a passion for making games. I am wanting to create some indie games using the Torque Engine. I just have a few questions that I cant seem to find answers to anywhere else.
Extremely General idea of the game I would like to make:
The game I want to make will take place in an underwater world in First and 3rd person view, adventure style looking for objects.
................
I've been hunting around for products to purchase to start developing my game. I need your opinions and suggestions to help me ease into this. I am looking for something affordable. (please dont mention blender)
My original Plan was to use:
Torque Engine, Truespace7 with gamePak
Is "The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque" a good book for me to get started on making my game? (what does it exactly teach?) I developed some simple C++ programs but im extremely novice.
Is Truespace7 with the gamePak WORTH my money? I do want to avoid wasting money and time. Does Truespace bring models with animations into Torque quite easily headache free?
..................
What Products should I invest my precious time and money into? I want to avoid any liscencing problems when and IF I sell my game.
From your experience what was the best products that helped you develope your game with the least headaches and bumps in the road?
Help point me to the right directions Thank you for your time.
#2
The GPGT is a very good book as are the books from Finney. The GPGT is Torque only while Finney covers some model making and such in the first book.
When you get torque you are going to need programs for both dts and dif objects. Some people like to have terrain generators as well, I personally don't mind using the built in editor.
For dif objects try to hold off until Constructor is finished (that will hopefully be soon :) ). If not I would recommend Gordon's approach of Cart Shop and the Torque Pipeline. I have 3D World Studio and it just seems to be having a lot of problems lately.
DTS objects are a bit more difficult. If you are looking for animated DTS objects stay away from Caligari all together. They never seem to be able to get exporting animations correct ( I personally believe this is why they are trying to add their own rendering engine). I love GameSpace for static objects but exporting animations is a pain.
Unfortunately the low cost options besides this are not great. I agree with you about Blender, I can use it quite well but it just still seems clunky. MilkShape is effective but again has animation problems. I think it was Rex who found a way to work out vertex weighting but I haven't heard that it is fully worked out yet.
I would suggest trying MilkShape through the demo as well as some of the other programs that have known exporters (Do a search for dts exporters and you will find a nice page matrix). Also look at Shaper. It is really rough at the moment but it has both dts important and export and looks very promising.
K
07/28/2006 (6:42 pm)
RemiThe GPGT is a very good book as are the books from Finney. The GPGT is Torque only while Finney covers some model making and such in the first book.
When you get torque you are going to need programs for both dts and dif objects. Some people like to have terrain generators as well, I personally don't mind using the built in editor.
For dif objects try to hold off until Constructor is finished (that will hopefully be soon :) ). If not I would recommend Gordon's approach of Cart Shop and the Torque Pipeline. I have 3D World Studio and it just seems to be having a lot of problems lately.
DTS objects are a bit more difficult. If you are looking for animated DTS objects stay away from Caligari all together. They never seem to be able to get exporting animations correct ( I personally believe this is why they are trying to add their own rendering engine). I love GameSpace for static objects but exporting animations is a pain.
Unfortunately the low cost options besides this are not great. I agree with you about Blender, I can use it quite well but it just still seems clunky. MilkShape is effective but again has animation problems. I think it was Rex who found a way to work out vertex weighting but I haven't heard that it is fully worked out yet.
I would suggest trying MilkShape through the demo as well as some of the other programs that have known exporters (Do a search for dts exporters and you will find a nice page matrix). Also look at Shaper. It is really rough at the moment but it has both dts important and export and looks very promising.
K
Torque Owner Gordon Marsh
I am fairly new to this game too. I have managed to progress reasonably rapidly using these forums and the two 3D Game Programming books by Kenneth Finney - I'd recommend both of them.
I don't own a copy of Game Programmer's Guide to Torque but am considering it as it appears to go into the engine code. Finneys books seem to concentrate on Torque Script and the "other" bits like model design etc.
It is a bit confusing as to what can be done in script and what needs to be done in the engine. I basically started by leaving the engine alone, and changing the scripts for the example games. I now have it set up though to edit the engine code using Visual C++ Express 2005.
Regarding software I'm currently using:
Milkshape 3D for DTS shape models
Cartography Shop 4.1 (with Torque Pipeline) for DIF interior models
T.ED for terrain generation
I'm not big on the graphics side though and have been buying a lot of the art that I need. This suite I believe is a good practical, budget suite of tools - although if you're looking for more heavy 3D art appliances I'll have to let someone else comment on that!
I think getting a good overall picture of the various components is a good idea. There is a good PDF when you buy Torque, and again Finney is good for overviews.
Gordon